A gift of $10 million, described by a spokesman for the Council of Jewish Federations as one of the largest ever given by an individual to a Jewish Federation, has been reported by the Greater Hartford Jewish Federation.
The gift was made to the Federation by Louis Rogow, an 87-year-old industrialist and community leader, as a pace-setting contribution to the Federation campaign. It is payable over the next 10 years at the rate of $1 million a year, starting with the 1986 campaign.
Don Cooper, Hartford Federation executive director, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by telephone that he considered the Rogow gift the largest single contribution by an individual to the Federation and probably one of the largest ever made by an individual to any Federation.
The CJF spokesman, however, said he could not describe the Rogow gift as the largest ever made to an American Jewish Federation because he did not know the details of how the gift would be transmitted. Cooper said those details were now being worked out by the Rogow family and the Federation. Cooper said all $10 million had been earmarked specifically for Israel.
Rogow was the first leader in the Hartford Jewish community some years ago to make a $1 million gift during an emergency campaign for Israel.
A JOINT FAMILY VENTURE
Announcement of the precedent-shattering contribution was made at a black-tie dinner here. Rogow stressed that the gift represented a commitment not only for himself and his wife, Helen, but also from his niece, Bea Greenberg, his nephew, Sidney Greenberg, and the four Greenberg children–Gary, Glen, Todd and Mimi.
Rogow declared at the dinner that the gift had become a joint venture with his family through the Rogow-Birken Manufacturing Company Foundation.
Emphasizing that the $1 million initial annual pledge was guaranteed, Rogow said he hoped he and Sidney Greenberg, the chief operating officer of the Birken firm, would be able to increase the initial annual gift to $1.5 million, and, by paying the pledge sooner, help Israel that much more quickly.
Rogow spoke proudly of research reports he has received from the Haifa Institute of Technology, where the Louis Rogow Aeronautical Research Fund is understood to have helped keep the Technion “in the forefront of technology.”
He said he had already given the Technion $300,000 of a $1 million dollar gift he announced several years ago. He said he hoped to pay it out himself, “rather than having” the Technion “get it through my will.”
Rogow, known for the patents and help he has given to Israel over the years, first visited the Jewish State twenty years ago.
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